The present disclosure relates generally to harnesses for rapid extraction of a person that is incapacitated from an emergency situation. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to various embodiments of a harness for rapid extraction of incapacitated individuals from a fire, wherein for example conventional tools requiring an upright posture are undesirable or impractical.
For over two hundred years, firefighters in the United States have been trusted with the task of not only controlling and extinguishing fires, but also ensuring the health and welfare of the victims of dangerous situations. There have been many changes in the approach to fighting fires. Firefighters have received updated equipment and training for assessing and combatting fires.
One area of fire and rescue has not experienced a similar degree of advancement. Extracting a victim from a structure fire or other dangerous situation is largely the same as it was over two hundred years ago. This method of extracting a victim includes grabbing the victim in any way possible and pulling the victim by one hand while sliding across the floor. A firefighter usually must slide across the floor while seated to accomplish this method. Such a method may be very time consuming and can drain the firefighter's strength quickly. A rescue is much more likely to succeed if it takes as little time as possible.
Another problem relates to various conventional tools and techniques that require rescue personnel to maintain an upright or largely upright position during extraction of the incapacitated individual. In a fire emergency, it is often essential that the rescue personnel assume a crouched or crawling position near the ground in order to minimize exposure. Extraction harnesses and the like which have been developed for military use, and even many such tools which have been applied for firefighters themselves, have failed to adequately address this important issue.
Many conventional tools and techniques present additional problems which can be critical in an emergency evacuation situation, particularly relating to structure fires or the like. For example, such prior art tools may typically fail to facilitate raising of the incapacitated individual from the ground, resulting in movement friction from the dragging action that takes place, and further frequently requiring the full use of both arms of the rescuer. Finally, such tools typically fail to leverage an appropriately ergonomic position, or otherwise are utterly impractical for rescuers that are relatively small as compared to the incapacitated individual.